The Strange World
by Kaishi Shouri
Summary: Follow the protagonists through their strange world filled with Ninjas, Ki warriors, Pokemon and the like, as they work towards achieving their dream... Joining the Alliance.
1. A Dream

_**The Journey Begins**_

 **The Dream** **:**

I felt a throbbing pain grip my head as I came to. Slowly my surroundings came into focus and I saw that I was in the wreckage of a plane. I couldn't remember why I was there or where I was going. I felt the pressure of my fastened seatbelt on my abdomen as I tried to get up. So I closed my eyes and laid back. Presently I felt a pair of hands unfastening it.

"Hey! Found another one!" it was a woman's voice. I opened my eyes suddenly and saw a brown haired woman probably in her late twenties struggling with my belt buckle which was probably stuck due to the crash. She had a shallow cut on her left cheek which was still red but had stopped bleeding and was dressed in a brown, buttoned jacket and a grey scarf. Her eyes were a deeper shade of brown than her hair.

"You'll be alright, just stay awake." she said to me. We both turned our heads at the sound of crunching leaves.

She spoke to the two men who had come running, "He hasn't spoken anything but he doesn't appear to be injured."

One of them was about the same age as her with black hair wearing a black hooded jacket and blue jeans. His eyes were blue and he had a clean shaven face. The other one was a bit older and was wearing a pilot's uniform, also had black hair.

She suddenly straightened her back and said, "Damn it! This thing won't come loose. You guys deal with this." And she got up and took a few steps back to allow the younger man to take her place.

He did not bother with the buckle and instead took out a knife from his jeans pocket and cut the belt.

"There we go. Are you hurt?" he asked me as he helped me up.

"Um... uh…. no… no I'm not hurt and… thanks for rescuing me."I answered.

"Don't mention it." he said. Then turning to the other two he said, "Now, I don't think there's anybody else left. But just-"

"Excuse me but I don't remember what happened and how did we end up here." I said interrupting him.

"We were in a plane crash. What else do you think happened?" the woman said. "As to where we are, as you can see we're in a jungle."

I looked around and right enough there was, in fact, a rain forest. It seemed as though our plane had crash landed in a clearing. The wings were nowhere to be seen and the fuselage was split in half. Although the air was hot and humid but I couldn't shake the cold feeling that something was wrong. However I couldn't point out what it exactly was. But I knew that at the moment survival was the main priority.

"How many survived?" I asked my fellow survivors.

"Five more and that's it." the uniformed man spoke for the first time.

"Have you found shelter yet?" I asked him. He shook his head in reply.

"How long till sundown?"

The young man turned towards the sun and pointed his wrist watch at it. I couldn't see what he was doing but then he turned towards me and said, "About 3 hours."

"Let's gather the survivors and start building one. With eight of us we can probably finish it before night fall." I said.

So all of us started gathering wood and leaves and in about an hour we made a pretty solid shelter spacious enough for all the survivors.

"Let's get some sleep and tomorrow we look for food and salvage some navigation equipment from the wreckage. Sounds good?" I said to the group. Everyone nodded their assent.

The next morning we all went in groups of two to search for food in different directions. I was with the uniformed man and we went in the direction of sunrise. We had walked some distance and had picked up the possible trail of a rabbit. We were following it in hopes of finding a rabbit hole. Suddenly we heard a growl from the bushes on our right. We stopped mid step and as soon as we turned a lion sprang towards us from behind them. I closed my eyes shut as I felt its breath and tongue on my face and in that moment I knew that it was the end…..

Of my dream. I woke with a start to find that my Pikachu was licking my face and it was the one that woke me.

* * *

 **A/N:** **This chapter is a bit short because the next one will be the beginning of the main story. If all goes according to plan then this fan fic is going to be big in terms of scope, characters, story…. just about everything.**

 **Hope you like it….**


	2. Just Another Day

_**The Journey Begins**_

 **2.** **Just another Day** **:**

" **A** lright, alright I'm up!" I yelled holding Pikachu up in my hands. "Mom put you up to this didn't she?"

"Pika pi." it said cheerfully waving its limbs in assent.

"Why are you so happy about it?" I grumbled frowning. "Ah well." I put Pikachu down and it hopped out of my room as I sat up in my bed.

"Arthur, hurry up or you'll be late for school. Today you have a maths test remember?" my mom called from the kitchen.

"Coming mom." I replied getting out of bed and going into the bathroom to bathe. While bathing I 'evaluated' my dream.

I know it sounds weird so allow me to explain. It started about three years ago. We were discussing about dreams in Languages class after reading a poem on them and someone raised a point about why we couldn't recall a dream upon waking up from deep sleep. I became curious and decided to try recalling my dreams. In a few months I was able to recall each and every dream I had seen regardless of how deep my slumber was. One thing led to another and now I not only recall my dream but also 'evaluate' it which mainly consists of reflecting on how detailed the dream was, what details were missing etc. What I found interesting was that being able to recall dreams increased my ability to focus on things. Hence it became a sort of training regime.

While I was getting dressed, the doorbell rang. I knew it was Gary. I quickly finished and came out of my room for breakfast. I found Gary sitting on a chair at the dining table. Beside him, on the floor my Pokémon (Pikachu, Charmander, Buizel, and Elektrike) and Mastiff, Rock were having breakfast. Across the table from him my mother's Pokémon Machop was laying down my bowl of ramen and two glasses of chilled chocolate milk. He turned his head at my entrance and I saw the same sly but comforting smile.

"Hurry up or we'll be late again." he said taking one of the glasses.

"Yeah yeah." I said sitting down to eat.

On the way to school on our bicycles Gary asked me about my dream. So I told him about it.

"Good detailing but I made some mistakes." I said after finishing my description.

"Such as?"

"Such as, I seem to have forgotten that plane crash survivors tend to be injured; yet apart from that shallow cut on the girl's cheek there was nothing else."

"You also forgot that it's tigers that live in rainforests while lions live in savannahs and grasslands." he said.

"Well they do, sometimes." I said.

"Not rainforests."

We argued on the topic for the rest of the way. We reached school ten minutes earlier and climbed the stairs to our classroom on the second floor. There were less than ten of our classmates in the classroom and we knew the number was not going to increase by much since it was the last day of school before the two and a half month long summer break began. We dropped our schoolbags on our usual places and strolled out into the corridor.

"Did you see their bags?" Gary asked me as we rested our elbows on the railing with our backs turned towards it and faced the classroom.

"Nope." I replied.

"Well then it seems like they're late today." he said clearly relishing the moment. To tell the truth, so was I. The two topics of our discussion have been the bane of our school lives. They always manage to reach school before us (even though they live farther from it than us) no matter how early we start. This had been happening everyday for about a year and a half. And by their account (and others') they always arrived five minutes before us and always appeared to be completely oblivious to our situation.

"Dude I don't know about you but after all this time it was seriously starting to creep me out." I said after a pause.

"I know right? And I'm not buying their innocence act for one second especially after that experiment of ours. Those two have definitely been doing it on purpose."

"I know and I also think it was an inside job."

"Right otherwise how could they know about our plan."

This 'experiment' of ours involved arriving at the school gates even before they were opened. It failed as we found them waiting in front of the gates. They said that they had been standing for (you guessed it) five minutes (the guard verified it) and as always, appeared to be as innocent as a new born baby.

They reached our floor just as the bell rang. We were still leaning against the railings and discussing the names of possible suspects for the failed experiment mentioned above, as they hauled themselves with great effort onto the last step. We could see the defeat in their eyes as they looked at us. We knew that even though they lost they would not accept defeat so easily. That was what we were counting on. We wanted them to try to goad us into gloating as that would confirm our suspicions about their deliberate role in torturing us. But that would be too easy now wouldn't it...

"Hey guys." said the taller one named Jane, smiling. She was just over 5'7" tall, had black hair with a brownish tint tied into a ponytail behind her just reaching shoulder length from which a few strands had come loose. She had a thin face with black eyes which was sweating suggesting that she had undertaken a vigorous physical task.

We were unable to reply immediately as we saw our well thought out (for a grueling thirty seconds) and extensively discussed (a monologue of one sentence each) plan crumble to pieces.

"Hello?" this time it was the shorter girl, Alice. She was about 5'5" with brown hair which was tied into a ponytail just like Jane reaching a few inches below the shoulders. She had dark brown eyes on a face rounder than her companion's. She was also sweating, albeit a little less than the other girl.

"Yeah… hi." Gary replied after a few seconds, in a sullen tone.

"This is not over." I muttered under my breath.

"Sorry what?" Jane said leaning a bit forward without losing that smug smile of hers.

"Nothing. What happened to you?" I asked.

"Flat tire. I had to drag my cycle for 2 kilometers."

"Come on let's talk inside. In case you didn't notice, the bell has already rung." Gary said to the rest of us.

A few minutes after we settled down our maths teacher, Mr. Shaw, entered carrying a sheaf of answer sheets and question papers.

"What are those for?" Alice asked Gary and me as we rose to wish him, while eyeing the papers suspiciously.

We turned around to face them. (They usually sit behind us)

"Take a guess." I told them as the teacher told us to sit down and started distributing the answer sheets and papers.

Their reactions as they remembered the announcement of the test made a week ago, were such that they restored my faith (and I'm sure Gary's too) in divine retribution. Jane buried her face in her hands and let out a groan along with an appeal to God asking Him the reason for the injustice done to them. While Alice just stared at the papers with a gaping mouth.

"Which chapter is it?" she finally managed to ask.

"Don't worry its quadratic equations." Gary replied.

"Phew! Thank God." she said letting out a huge sigh of relief. Jane too perked up her head from her hands looking relieved.

"You know you—" I began.

"(Arthur) Sance, (Alice) Tanen and (Gary) Parr. I know the District Tournament is coming up but unless you are discussing matters of world security, you are not allowed to speak during the test. Understand?" Mr. Shaw said cutting me off causing a few of our classmates to chuckle quietly.

"Yes sir." we grumbled as Gary and I turned back to face the blackboard.

The test was pretty easy and out of the twenty four students present (including us), ten (again including us) finished it with more than thirty minutes remaining before the one hour time limit ended and the bell rang.

"Well that went better than I expected." Jane said as we came out of the classroom.

"Yeah, me too." Alice said

"Does that mean you guys are getting twenty five out of twenty?" Gary asked her.

"Oh you're one to talk." Jane said. "You too Arthur." she said to me as I opened my mouth to speak. With this, we started walking towards the gymnasium to practice for the tournament.

"So how was the month for you guys?" I asked as we walked.

"Well I for one loved it." Jane said and the others nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, your idea to take a month for individual training worked out great. Especially that chart your dad and mine made for us." Alice said her eyes shining eagerly.

"But don't you think one month was a bit too much?" Gary asked me.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, it's not that the month was a waste. I just think that a week would have been enough and the rest of the month could have been used for battling."

"Tell me did you test your Pokémon's against one another?"

"Yes."

"So at that time didn't you give commands to both your Pokémon at the same time?"

It was then that the answer dawned on him.

"The second round." he said throwing his head upwards.

"Exactly, double battles. The month was not only to improve your Pokémon's conditioning but also your ability to command two Pokémon simultaneously. Now if we win the first round then during the following preparation week we won't need to waste any time on that and we can practice battling right away."

"Hmm, nice thinking captain." he said nodding his approval.

Meanwhile we had exited the school's academic area and were now entering the gymnasium's premises. It is about five times the size of the academic area. It is a square, most of which is open ground with a path running along its circumference. It has two standard soccer fields situated side by side near the entrance. Each field is surrounded by nets which rise up to 30 feet. On the far side of the soccer fields there are six basketball courts in two rows of three. A 20 feet high metallic fence encloses the courts into one section. On the left side of the basketball courts and the football fields, there are two hockey fields, again with fences, situated along their lengths. On the rest of the area two buildings stand. The taller one is six stories tall. The ground floor consists of six badminton courts and six tennis courts (3 clay and 3 grass courts in case you were wondering…..) arranged in two rows of six. The first floor has an oval running track on the outside and the centre contains long jump and high jump tracks. The next floor has seven squash courts, ten table tennis tables and ten pool tables. Next floor has only ice hockey rinks. After that we have beyblade stadiums on the fourth floor (don't ask me how many). On the top floor we have five Olympic size swimming pools. Finally on the roof we have martial arts training facilities. Each floor (including the roof) has girls and boys locker rooms having 200 lockers each.

Our destination was the other building which is just one story tall but covers more than twice the other building's area. It solely consists of 10 Pokémon battle arenas each of which can be raised to the roof levels for the benefit of flying Pokémon via a control panel at the referee's platform. In addition to it, the floor of each of the arenas is split along the centre line and can be opened completely or partially to reveal a pool depending upon the type of Pokémon battling. It has 20 Pokémon trading and transporting machines and 20 healing units. We entered and went into the locker rooms to change. After we used the transporters to transport the Pokémon we needed from my father's lab, (he's a Pokémon researcher) we headed to occupy an arena.

When we entered the building we spotted the other team our school was sending for the District tournament, beginning practice on the far side of the building. The other team's members were in the tenth grade and were our seniors by one year. The six members were warming up with their Pokémon: Machoke, Polywrath, Meganium, Houndoom, Flygon and Sandslash. By the time we came out of the locker rooms they had already begun battling. The members who were not battling waved at us and we waved back.

"Now then," I said turning back towards my team. "The first match will be Jane versus Gary a—"

"And I'll be the referee." Alice said cutting me off.

"I was just about to say the same thing you know." I shook my head.

"Alright positions everybody!" she said completely ignoring me.

So here's how this works….

Every country on earth has its own process of qualification for selecting their candidate team for the Continental Tournament. (Three types of tournaments i.e. Pokémon, Beyblade and Martial Arts have the same selection procedure) Due to our country's large population the process is a bit more difficult. The number of teams entering is so large that they need to be reduced for the advanced stages. For this purpose, the District and State level tournaments are treated as preliminaries for the National Tournament. However they also carry their individual titles. When a team wins a preliminary round, it is awarded a trophy for winning at that level and an official invitation for the next round. (If a winning team does not want to participate in the next round then the invitation passes on to the runner up)

The winning team from each country's National Tournament is that country's chosen candidate for the final round of the Continental Tournament. The procedure mentioned above, till the National tournament is applicable for citizen teams only (i.e. the team members have to be citizens of a country of the continent). However in the Continental tournament, outside teams can also participate. They also have to go through preliminary rounds to qualify for the final round of the Continental Tournament. These preliminaries are required to be held by each country, and are designed specifically for outside teams (no citizen teams are allowed to participate). The qualified teams then participate alongside the National Champions in the final round. The Continental Champion teams directly enter the quarter finals for the World Championship. However any team that fulfils a certain criteria set by the Federation for International Tournaments (FIT), can participate in the preliminaries for the world championship.

The selection procedure for Continental Tournament for every country is decided by a board of 10 members each. This board answers to the BCT (Board of the Continental Championship) which also oversees the Continental tournament itself. Each branch of the BCT consists of 2 members from each country in the continent. Since the number of countries varies in each continent, the number of board members in each branch also varies. This entire system is managed and overseen by the FIT. All the other boards are answerable to FIT. This board consists of four members from every continent and a chairman who is elected after every tournament by the other board members. The chairman has the power to veto any decision made by the FIT or any junior board.

Well coming back, everyone took their places and Alice recited the rules (we already know them but for some reason she plays the part of referee very seriously).

"This is a three versus three, battle with no time limit. When all three Pokémon on either side are unable to battle, the match will end. Substitutions are allowed at all times. No items are allowed during the battle. The trainer to go first will be decided by a coin toss."

A coin was duly produced and tossed. Jane lost and had to choose first. She chose Wartortle to which Gary chose Bulbasaur.

"Begin!" Alice announced.

"Bulbasaur, use razor leaf."

Bulbasaur shot a barrage of razor sharp leaves from the base of its bulb.

"Use iron defense and stay put."

The razor leaf collided with the shell and got deflected with no effect.

"Wartortle, use water gun."

Wartortle came out of its shell and shot its water gun at Bulbasaur.

"Bulbasaur, jump."

Bulbasaur used vine whip to jump in the nick of time.

"Gotcha!" Jane said with a grin. "Wartortle, use skull bash and double the impact."

Wartortle jumped, turned towards the ground and fired water gun at it. Wartortle went like a bullet and made contact with its target in the air.

Bulbasaur fell out of the arena due to the impact but got up immediately.

"Wartortle, defense tackle and double the impact again."

Wartortle went back into its shell and shot a water gun in the direction opposite of Bulbasaur propelling itself towards the target Pokémon.

"Use razor leaf."

The next moment a barrage of razor leaves collided against Wartortle's shell that was rapidly closing in. However it was not very effective. Wartortle hit hard and this time it looked like Bulbasaur felt it.

"Quick sunny day!" as Gary said that, Bulbasaur's bulb pulsed with light.

"Tackle!" Jane said almost immediately.

Again tackle made contact. But not before sunny day was cast and the room became blazing hot. This was not looking good for Gary. He gave up his chance to defend to cast sunny day which gave up the type of his next Pokémon.

"Bulbasaur return." he said pointing a poke ball towards it. The red laser shot out and Bulbasaur returned.

"Get as much rest as you can my friend, I may need you again." he said to the poke ball.

"Hey! Who the hell used sunny day? Was it you Jane?" suddenly someone yelled.

We turned towards the other occupants of the building. All the members of the other team (including the Pokémon) were staring in our direction.

"Sorry! That was me." Gary said.

"Damn! That's a powerful one." said Rafiq (one of the seniors).

"Thanks man."

"Alright everybody, back to work." said the other team's referee, Sally.

"You're planning something aren't you?" Jane asked Gary as we turned back towards our battle.

Gary didn't reply but replaced Bulbasaur's poke ball back on his belt and took another from it. He first looked at it, then at his opponent. Then he raised an eyebrow and broke into a grin.

 **A/N: Damn! That took longer than I expected…. much longer. Well here it is. Next chapter is almost entirely Pokémon battles. So please bear with me.**


	3. Just Another Day contd

**Just another Day** **(continued….)**

"Your turn my friend." Gary said throwing the poke ball. The poke ball released Vulpix.

"This should be good." I said to myself. Vulpix used to be his go to Pokémon until last summer when it suddenly stopped battling at all. We asked Gary about it and he said that Vulpix had been behaving strangely for a few weeks. Alice's father and mine (both are Pokémon researchers and run a lab together just like the famous Professor Oak) said that it was having a power surge and that to adapt to it, it either needed to train or to evolve. So Gary told Vulpix to take its time to make a decision. After a few days when we asked about it he told us that Vulpix had gone to his grandmother's house to think about it (everyone likes Gary's grandmother and her Blissey). Now it looked like Vulpix made a choice.

All of us realized this and so I was not surprised when I saw Jane tense up a little.

"Begin!" Alice announced.

"Hydro pump." Jane said to Wartortle. Wartortle took a deep breath and the next moment shot a thick stream of water at Vulpix.

"Fire blast." Gary said calmly. I saw the reason for that straight counter attack in the form of a Blastoise sized fire star with its power augmented due to the sunny day cast by Bulbasaur.

The two attacks collided causing the hydro pump to evaporate creating a thick fog over the arena.

"Quick attack, now." Gary said as soon as the fog settled. Vulpix disappeared into the fog and the next instant Wartortle screamed and Vulpix came out of the fog.

"Use ember and go underground."

Vulpix shot a ring of flames quickly which disappeared into the fog. However by now the steam was beginning to dissipate and I could make out Wartortle's shadow.

But that didn't matter because as soon as Vulpix fired ember it dived headfirst into the ground and disappeared into it leaving a hole. After a few seconds the fog was completely gone and Wartortle was completely visible. As for the ember, it was successful due to the fog masking its incoming direction and probably burnt Wartortle.

"Alright Wartortle, Iron Defense." Jane said without missing a beat as did her Pokémon.

"Now!" Gary said as soon as Wartortle was inside its shell. Vulpix then attacked from directly below its opponent and knocked it into the air.

"Water gun." Jane said instantly to prevent a follow up attack and Wartortle complied.

"Use flamethrower." The two attacks collided and after a few seconds created steam once again and this time it was thicker due the continuous nature attacks.

Wartortle dropped right into the middle of the steam cloud once again.

"Use fire spin." Gary said to Vulpix who was outside the cloud. Vulpix complied and the small fire ring went into the cloud causing Wartortle to scream.

Now the match was almost over just one well-placed attack and the burn effect will take care of the rest.

"Use rapid spin to remove the steam." Jane said.

The cloud began to dissipate and Wartortle's spinning shell was becoming faintly visible.

"Use flame thrower and keep at it." Gary immediately said.

The flames enveloped Wartortle's shell and after a few seconds steam started to spout from it. This was serious because it meant that the water in Wartortle's body was evaporating. As soon as this happened Vulpix stopped and all of us rushed towards Wartortle's shell which was still spouting steam.

On the way I heard Gary say, "Oh God." I felt terrible as I knew how much he loved Pokémon and animals. It was because of this common trait that we became friends ten years ago.

Flashback time…

We were in kindergarten back then. Alice and I (we grew up together) had transferred a few months ago because our fathers had been offered a bigger location by the government for their contributions which was much suited for both the Pokémon under their care and their research.

Although we would occasionally talk to each other like classmates do, we were not friends. However, one day as I was walking home from school (I used do that with Alice but she was sick that day) I heard some commotion from an orchard on the side of the road. Curious, I followed the sound and saw Gary standing with his arms wide facing away from me. Behind him was a baby Poochyena cowering with its nose in its paws. In front of him I saw a bigger one growling at them. I understood that Gary was trying to protect the pup from the bigger Poochyena. I knew that he did not have any Pokémon yet, very few in kindergarten do. So I came out from behind the tree and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked back and was surprised to see me. I smiled at him and stood in front of him facing the Poochyena.

"Arthur what are you doing? We can't beat it. Just take the pup and run I'll distract it." he said.

I didn't reply as I was focusing on the Pokémon in front of me. I didn't know how strong it was but I had to take the chance. So I threw my pokeball containing Pichu (my first Pokémon). The Poochyena leapt towards Pichu to tackle it.

"Pichu dodge it." I said. Pichu jumped sideways just in time and the Poochyena stopped not being able to change direction immediately.

"Use quick attack." Pichu dashed towards the Poochyena who was unable to dodge and hit it in the side causing it to lose its balance and fall towards the other side.

"Finish it with thunder shock." Pichu sent out a current of electricity which hit Poochyena.

The Poochyena scrambled to its feet and ran in the opposite direction. As soon as it was out of sight my Pichu teetered on its feet and fell down. I knew this would happen because Pichus shock themselves when they use electric attacks. That is why I had saved the electric attack for last.

I returned Pichu to its pokeball and turned towards Gary and said, "Are you two hurt?"

He bent down to pick up the Poochyena puppy to look at it. It was licking its paw. Then he turned to me and said, "I'm fine but the puppy injured its paw probably while running away from the big one. It doesn't look bad but I don't want to leave it out here. By the way is your Pichu alright? It fainted."

"Oh don't worry about it. It didn't faint, it was just dizzy. Pichus always shock themselves when they use electric attacks. But first we have to get the pup's paw looked at."

"Yeah, you're right but the Pokémon centre is the other way from my home and if I am late my mom will scold me."

"Where do you live?"

"B-block house number 3."

"Oh that's good because my house is on the way to your house. I live in A-block number 27. My dad is a Pokémon researcher. He should be home right now for lunch. He can help us."

"Good then let's go." With this we walked to my house and as I had said my father was home for lunch.

"Mom, dad, I'm home." I said as I entered.

"You're just in time son for lunch, son." My dad called.

My mom came to the door and asked, "Why are you late Arthur?" Then she looked at Gary and asked smiling, "And who is your friend?"

"Hello Mrs. Sance, I am Gary Parr. I'm in Arthur's class and he helped me today."

"Hello Gary, come on in. We were just about to have lunch, come join us. And your Pokémon is welcome too."

"Later mom, first I need to see dad."

"What happened?" she asked but then her eyes fell on the pup licking its paw. "It's hurt. Go ahead your dad is watching TV."

We went into the dining room where my father was sitting on the couch watching the news. He turned at our footsteps and smiled at us.

"Oh you've brought a friend."

"Yeah, his name is Gary. But first take a look at this Poochyena's paw." I said and Gary held it up.

My dad walked over to us and took the pup from Gary and looked at its paw. Then he said, "It'll be fine in a second." And got up and went to the bathroom to get the first aid kit. I turned to Gary and said, "Listen you haven't told your mom that you'll be late right? So I'll go with dad and you talk to my mom. She'll take you to the phone. She's in the kitchen on the left."

"Ok." he said and turned away.

"So where did you find this one?" my father asked me while bandaging the paw.

After I told him the whole story he said, "You did good Arthur. You helped a friend and battled well. I'm proud of you."

"Gary isn't exactly my friend." I said.

"Well you both seem to share the same love for Pokémon. So even if you're not friends now, I am sure you will be."

And as always, he was right.

End flashback….

We reached the shell which had stopped steaming. After that Wartortle came out of it looking worn out and tired but not burnt at all.

"Oh thank God." Gary said letting out a relieved sigh. Then he put a hand on Jane's shoulder and when she turned to look at him he said, "I'm so sorry Jane. I didn't know that was gonna happen. I'm sorry."

She knew how he was feeling, we all did. So she placed her hand on his shoulder and said, "Hey. Don't worry about it. Besides, look, Wartortle is alright. Even the fire resistant layer is still intact."

Gary looked at Wartortle who gave him thumbs up and then dropped its hand and stuck out its tongue in exhaustion. (That Wartortle is a drama queen)

"But how is it still intact? That's what I wanna know." Alice said.

I was thinking the same thing and so I inspected Wartortle's hand and as Jane had said, the resistant layer was still there in all its glorious sliminess. (It's not that I'm grossed out by it. It's just that now my hand would be sticky until I wash it with soap) The Pokémon, intrigued by my actions was watching me curiously. This scene made the others laugh for some reason. Though now that I think about it, I guess it would have been funny looking at a guy just staring intently at a fat (Jane calls it being healthy and I call shenanigans on that) tortoise and the latter looking at the former just as intently with twitching ears. (On a side note, fat as that Pokémon may be, but damn it's quick)

After a few seconds of thought a theory presented itself to me. I ran a hand along Wartortle's shell. It felt cool to my hand, which it shouldn't have been after the attack it took. Now more sure of my theory, I slid my hand between its arm and the lower part of its shell, causing Wartortle to laugh (it has always been ticklish) and to try to wiggle away from me, and ran it along the inner wall which was moist due to water droplets. Having confirmed my theory, I looked at the others who were waiting for an explanation.

"So detective, what have you found out?" Jane asked.

"That fat" (the expression she gave me was priceless… it's a sensitive topic for her but curiously, not so for the Pokémon) "tortoise of yours is smarter than it looks." I said to her.

"Looks like it sensed that Vulpix's flame thrower could be dangerous and to protect itself from it, it filled its shell with water to transfer the heat. The steam that we saw was that water evaporating. I have to say," I said turning to the Pokémon, "that was good, Wartortle."

"Alright, alright, now that we've cleared that up, let's continue shall we." Alice said clapping her hands. Meanwhile I took Wartortle's pokeball from Jane's belt on her waist and returned Wartortle to it. Then I went to the healing unit on the wall to place Wartortle in it and walked back to where the others were about to begin the next match.

"Okay," Alice the referee, said as I took my place outside the arena, "now that everyone's here, let us begin the next round. Jane has used and lost one Pokémon, while Gary has used two and lost none. Go!"

"Rhydon, go." Jane said throwing a pokeball which released Rhydon.

"Alright Vulpix, get ready." Gary said choosing Vulpix again.

This was getting interesting now. I was not sure how Gary was planning on handling this. If it were up to me, I would have switched Pokémon because Rhydon versus Vulpix is not a good match up for the Vulpix if both the Pokémon are on the same level. That's because there is no way for Vulpix to win this quickly, it has to be a drawn out battle. Now for Gary and Vulpix, as far as I could see, speed was not a problem at all. Endurance and strength however was a different story. Even if Vulpix had not battled Wartortle in the previous match, I doubt it could match the strength and stamina of a Rhydon, especially Jane's Rhydon.

"Use dig." Gary said to Vulpix who complied.

"Alright Rhydon get ready. It will attack from below." Jane said.

For about ninety seconds nothing happened. Nobody moved or spoke and the only sounds audible to my ears were from the senior team from the other end of the building.

"Ok what's going on? I knew that this was going to be a long battle but this isn't what I had in mind." said Jane breaking the silence.

"Ok Vulpix, out!" Gary said which caused his opponents to tense up but Vulpix came out about three feet away from Rhydon.

"Tackle." Jane said without missing a beat.

"Double team." Gary said in reply. Images of Vulpix surrounded Rhydon.

"Use earthquake." Jane said which was a very nice move to misbalance Vulpix and thus to get rid of the images.

However it back fired because as soon as Rhydon stomped its foot on the ground, the ground caved in and Rhydon fell into a pit. Now I saw what Vulpix did during those ninety seconds. It dug tunnels underneath Rhydon to create pockets in the ground which caved when Rhydon stamped.

"Flamethrower." Gary said as Rhydon was falling. Vulpix leaped up and as soon as it got directly above its opponent it launched a flamethrower at its metallic horn which dealt severe damage.

It was a brilliant move to use dig as a way to make Rhydon lose focus and balance (the fall itself would do no damage) to prevent it from counter-attacking. Jane knows that Rhydon's steel horn drill is both its strength and weakness, so she has trained her Rhydon for speed and agility along with the usual strength.

However, although it was a good plan, it was not infallible. Jane could have avoided it by using earthquake whilst Vulpix was beneath it as it would have caused the ground to collapse on Vulpix. But to be fair, seeing through your opponent's strategy is not that easy especially in the heat of battle.

I was brought out of my thoughts by Jane's voice, "Rhydon, use rock climb and use horn attack."

Rhydon suddenly got up and lengthening its claws it started to run up the walls of the pit. It was out instantly and leapt towards Vulpix who was about to land on the other side of the pit. The immobilized Vulpix was hit hard and went skidding for some distance. However the after effects of the flame thrower were beginning to show as Rhydon went down on one knee. Both Pokémon struggled to stand up having taken serious damage. The next move was going to be decisive.

"Rhyhorn mega punch."

"Mega kick."

Both attacks made contact and the result was a double knockout.

"Both Pokémon are unable to battle, it's a draw." Alice announced.

Both Pokémon were recalled and put on the healing unit.

"Tangrowth, your turn." Jane said throwing her third pokeball.

"Bulbasaur, go." Gary said.

"Poison powder." Jane said.

Tangrowth started shaking and the familiar powder with a purple glint started spraying from its head. Suddenly, a wolfish grin formed itself on Gary's face. Then he said, "Razor leaf."

Bulbasaur promptly responded in the form of a dense and powerful stream of razor sharp leaves causing the powder to disperse from the mere force of the attack.

"Damn, that was powerful." I thought to myself. "In fact…..more powerful than the last time." That was not possible since it was evident that Bulbasaur took a good amount of damage in its previous match. "Unless…"

Then I realized what his plan was. It was a nice plan albeit a one-time plan. I saw that Jane and Alice also suspected something. But unlike them I was sure. Vulpix was not the surprise, Bulbasaur was. He had planned all this beforehand. He exploited the fact that Pokémon psychology is the closest to human psychology than any other creature on Earth. During the first match, Bulbasaur only appeared to be losing, when in fact it could have beaten Wartortle. They made it look as if Bulbasaur took more damage than it actually did. Also, its attacks did more damage to Wartortle than it looked like. But since Wartortle was 'winning', it didn't pay attention to the extra damage it had taken. This was helped by the sudden recall of Bulbasaur by Gary, thereby breaking the flow of the match. This extra damage to Wartortle's stats gave Vulpix the edge it needed to defeat Wartortle by making it slower. The main objective of Vulpix was to beat Rhydon (or whatever Jane's second Pokémon would have been). Although Vulpix probably could have beaten Wartortle without Bulbasaur's help, it wouldn't have been able to beat Rhydon after that. Hence it was crucial to weaken Wartortle enough so as to not pose a threat to Vulpix.

"Tackle!" Jane said and Tangrowth dashed towards Bulbasaur.

"You use tackle too." Gary said calmly. Now the match was almost decided. Both the Pokémon collided head on and as I expected, Bulbasaur was stronger and so Tangrowth was thrown back.

However Gary, without missing a beat, said, "Razor leaf." and the attack sent Tangrowth crashing into the wall behind it before it could even regain its balance.

As soon as the attack ended Alice's right hand (Gary's side) went up accompanied by, "Tangrowth cannot battle, Bulbasaur wins." Her quick reaction showed that she had now figured out Gary's strategy.

We hurried over to Tangrowth to assess the damage but it was just unconscious without any signs of serious injuries. So after placing it on the healing unit, we returned to the arena.

"I don't get it." Jane said shaking her head. "Think about it calmly during the next match and you'll get it." Alice said to her. "And the miss the next match?" Jane replied. "It's been a month since any of us battled. Would you miss it?"

"Fair point." Gary said. Then he looked at me and asked, "I'm assuming we're doing it in tournament format?"

"Yep. The winner battles against you and the loser, against Jane." I said. "Ok then, I'll be the ref." Gary said and we took our positions.

"Ok. So the rules are the same. Three vs three no time limit subs allowed. Ready?" He asked taking a coin out of his pocket for the toss.

"You call it." I said to Alice and she nodded. Gary tossed the coin and she chose tails and won. Once we got to our positions I selected my first pokéball and threw it which opened to reveal Golbat.

"Huh," was all she said before she threw her pokéball to reveal Staraptor.

"Begin." Gary said.

"Quick attack." Alice said immediately. Staraptor shot towards my Pokémon.

"Fire fang." I said as soon as Staraptor made contact. Golbat didn't waste any time and surrounded its fangs with spiral flames. Alice saw it and began to say, "Staraptor ge–—".

But before she could finish Golbat clamped its flaming jaws on its opponent's left wing.

"Staraptor return." Alice said without wasting any time and pointing the pokéball at Staraptor returning it. "Get as much rest as you can friend, I'm sure we'll need you again." she said to the pokéball and returned it to her belt. Then taking a different one she threw it saying, "You guys are gonna love this one." All the while smiling.

Shiftry materialized on the arena and stood there grinning at me. "When did you evolve Nuz– sorry, Shiftry?" I couldn't help but smile. Looking around I saw smiles on Jane and Gary too. The reason for that was, that Shiftry, as Nuzleaf and Seadot, was not good at battling though not for any lack of effort. Ah, how quickly kids grow.

"Golbat, return." I said as soon as she chose Shiftry came out and chose my next Pokémon, "Tyrogue, go."

As soon as Tyrogue materialized and took a look at its opponent, I saw its head bob up with what I could only guess to be an expression of surprise. (Since its back was towards me)

"Alright, begin!"

"Quick attack." Jane said and Shiftry charged towards Tyrogue.

"Double team." I said almost simultaneously, to which Tyrogue responded by making a circle of after images with Shiftry at the centre, causing the latter Pokémon to stop in its tracks.

However, as I expected, Alice didn't lose her cool, neither did Shiftry, and just waited for our next attack.

"Fire punch," I said and the circling Tyrogues lunged towards their opponent with fire covered fists.

"Leaf blade twister," she responded.

The above move is a variation of the move leaf blade in which the Pokémon, instead of charging forward and using the leaves as swords, it rotates in a circle forming a ring of the leaf blades. If a Pokémon is strong enough, it can create twisters which can pull targets towards the rotating blades. The fact that Shiftry could do it so early after its evolution was a testament to the effort they must have put in.

Shiftry spun while holding its arms out so that the glowing leaves on its forearms made a circular ring. As expected, the images were mowed down until there was no one but Shiftry in the arena. Tyrogue was nowhere to be seen.

On pure instinct Shiftry looked up just in time to see the real Tyrogue's fire punch connect with its face. Tyrogue punched Shiftry in such a way that it went flying across the arena. Tyrogue, then, without missing a beat dashed towards the flying Shiftry, and hit it with a Mach punch, slamming Shiftry into the ground.

"Shiftry can't battle anymore. Tyrogue is the winner." Gary said.

"Whoa." I heard Jane's surprised voice as Tyrogue helped Shiftry up and they shook hands (or fists….. or hooves whatever you want to call them). Shiftry had sustained no serious injury, it had just admitted defeat by staying down. (Ironically, fighting Pokémon have the lowest number of sustained injuries in battle as the loser admits defeat most of the time.) It just got up, and after shaking hands with Tyrogue, it left the building to head towards the gardens.

"Yeah, you can say that again." Gary said to her. Then he said to Alice, "Ready?"

"Yeah." She replied without taking her eyes off the arena. Then she took another pokeball from her belt and threw it.

"Wing attack." She said as soon as Staraptor materialised and its wings started glowing.

"Mach punch." I said and Tyrogue jumped towards a descending Staraptor, with a glowing fist (with a hint of light blue) and the two attacks collided throwing both of them back.

"Quick attack." Alice said as soon as her Pokémon recovered.

"Defence curl." I said as Tyrogue couldn't do anything until it reached the ground.

Staraptor landed a solid hit on Tyrogue causing it to hit the ground hard on its back. However due to the defence curl most of the damage was avoided. However, nobody else knew that. (Defensive techniques are criminally underrated, if you ask me.)

"That was close." I thought to myself, mentally sighing.

Tyrogue got up almost immediately having sustained some damage. But I wasn't worried as I had already thought of a way to win this match.

"Alright Tyrogue use Mega puch." I said and Tyrogue once again leapt up towards the airborne Staraptor without hesitation.

"Steel wing." Alice said and Staraptor attacked without hesitation too.

Both the attacks collided once again and the Pokémon were thrown back. However, this time the recoil speed was higher due to the higher strength of the attacks.

"Quick attack." Alice said and Staraptor swoop down again. However this time Tyrogue reached the ground before the attack hit and was able to dodge it with agility causing the opponent to fly past it.

"Mach punch." I said, to which Tyrogue responded by dashing towards Staraptor.

"Counter with wing attack." Alice said and Staraptor turned with a glowing wing just in time to meet the incoming attack.

However, this time only Staraptor was sent flying because, Tyrogue's feet were planted on the ground allowing it to use its full power.

"Staraptor's HP has depleted fully," Gary said looking at the screen on the referee's podium, "It can't continue. Tyrogue wins."

(What? Did you think we actually wait for Pokémon to faint or get seriously injured to stop the match? Pokemon are given a certain number of Hit Points at the beginning of a battle. These are allotted by observing a Pokémon's state of health. In non-official battles like the one we were doing, either the referee's podium or the trainer watches, worn by the trainers, are used. The watches or the podium screen use a software to analyse things like muscle density, muscle size, attacks known etc. to determine a Pokémon's level. This level is then used to determine the number of Hit Points to be allotted. The accuracy is about ninety five percent and for safety, only eighty percent of the total Hit Points are actually used. Whereas in tournaments or any major battles, this check-up is done by doctors who are more thorough and so, it is almost hundred percent accurate.)

"Dude, what the hell was that!?" Alice asked me after we had once again taken our places.

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"You beat two of my tournament ready Pokémon with just one. And you still have all three." She said.

"Well I can't tell you that right now. Try to figure it out on your own like I figured out your strategy and counter it." I then turned to look at the other two, "What about you two?"

"I wasn't sure after the first battle, but now I am." Jane replied.

"Really?" Alice said with a contemplative expression, "Hmm. So being in the battle does affect you."

"Me too." Gary said, "I thought that you would use a more complex plan."

"Well I could, but I'm focusing on the base stats right now. So..." I replied.

"I see. Alright back to your places." Gary said walking back to the referee's spot.

"Elektrike, go." Alice said throwing her last pokeball.

"Tyrogue return", I said and Tyrogue walked back to me and fell down on its back, beside me.

"Golbat, your turn." I said as I threw the pokeball.

"Shockwave." Alice said as soon as Golbat materialized.

A meshed dome of electricity formed around Elektrike. I could feel my hair rising due to the static electricity. She wanted to halt my attack by paralyzing Golbat. However….

"Confusion." I said as soon as I realized her plan.

Golbat's eyes started glowing and met Elektrike's eyes. Next moment, the static electricity vanished as Elektrike's concentration was disrupted by the confusion.

"Elektrike try to snap out of it!" Alice exclaimed. Although Elektrike tried by shaking its head vigorously, it was of no use.

"Quick attack." I said and Golbat swooped down towards its opponent quickly.

"Dodge it!" Alice said. However, the confused Elektrike dodged in the wrong direction (towards the incoming attack) and got hit. It got up with some effort which showed that the attack had dealt some damage.

"Steel wing." I said, before Alice could call out an attack (attacks by a confused Pokémon have a chance of landing).

Golbat once again dived and with the aid of acceleration due to gravity, the attack landed quickly. The second attack must have reduced Elektrike's HP because Gary called announced the end of the battle.

"GG jerk." Alice said punching my arm.

"Ow!" I said rubbing the assaulted spot.

"Well I'm going to the canteen 'cause I missed breakfast and I'm starving," Jane said chuckling.

"Yeah, me too," I said as I watched Tyrogue head towards the gardens, "Let's continue the battles later."

"Arthur you ate a tub-sized bowl of ramen less than two hours ago," Gary said as we headed towards the canteen, "That's a lot, even for you."

"Gary come on, I've seen his bowl* and you're exaggerating." Jane said rolling her eyes.

*(Yeah I'm thirteen years old and yeah I have a favorite bowl….. a favorite plate… a spoon and a fork… You got a problem with that?)

"Yeah man, stop exaggerating, it's not—"

"You shut up," Gary said cutting me off before turning to the girls, "The bowl that you guys are talking about has been replaced by another one."

"Exactly how big is it?" Alice asked tilting her head slightly.

"Do you guys remember the dinner party we had at his house in March, after the finals (exams)?"

"Yeah." "Mm-hmm." Both replied.

"And do you remember that new cooking pot that Arthur's mother bought? The one that the food was served in?"

"No…." Jane said in an awed voice as it dawned on her.

"Yep," Gary said, "His bowl has the same capacity as that."

"Dude…." Alice said as three pairs of eyes, two wide and one with the 'I told you so' expression, turned on me.

"Hey I'm a growing child. I need my nutrients." I said after a few seconds under their gaze.

"What exactly do you want to grow into?" Jane asked.

"Are you sure you're not adopted? Because that's not human, I'll tell you that much." Alice said.

"See? It's not just me." Gary said waving towards the two.

I could just shake my head in disgust at them by the time we reached the canteen. There Jane and I ordered our food and we sat down to eat with the other two just having a glass of juice each.

"So, what news do you bring from our northern allies squire?" Alice asked in her 'medieval' voice.

"Well, your grace, Lady Malcom and Lord Rance seem to have joined forces with the local militia to conquer the ….. the… District Games. Dammit I couldn't find any word for the tournament." I said.

"Yeah I talked to Sarah last night. She said that their teammates are pretty good and they too have a team waiting for them for the Nationals," Jane chimed in, "Which reminds me. Alice, did they find the problem in your house network yet? It's been three days."

"They did last night. Apparently, it was being blocked by a group of Pachirisus camping under our backyard. My dad is taking them to the lab grounds today."

"No wonder I couldn't reach the two of you last night," I said to Jane, "Gary, Tyler and I had a conference call last night. And about that National team of their teammates', he told us their team's name…."

"The Warhawks." Gary said quietly.

"Damn…." Jane whispered while Alice let out a whistle.

The Warhawks is one of the three strongest teams in our country. The other two being, S-Class and the Seven Crowns.

"We'll worry about them when the time comes. One step at a time guys." I said after a few silent moments.

"So who will battle next?" Jane asked me getting up with her empty plate.

"It's you versus Alice. Then Gary versus me." I told her as I finished the last of my food.

So we practiced till the end of the day and we rinsed and repeated for the next week until the day before the tournament. On the last day, we went for a relaxing camping trip at the lake near Jane's house.

Then came the District Tournament and …..well …. Everything changed.

 **A/N: So…. Not dead. Well the battles were taking a lot of time so I skipped the last ones. If you want I'll make a separate chapter out of those. So tell me in your reviews if you want them.**

 **Nothing else to say other than that the real action is about to begin. So stay tuned.**


	4. District Tournament - Day 1

**District Tournament – Day 1**

"So captain, what do you think our chances are?" I asked Shelly, the captain of the senior team, who was seated at the front seat near the gate.

We were on a bus headed towards the tournament venue. Almost every school has separate management departments that are separate from the other ones, which specifically handle stuff for tournaments such as this. Some schools even have different departments for different types of tournaments, like Card Games/Board Games (Duel Masters, Bakugan, Chess, Shogi, etc.), Sports (Tennis, Hockey, Soccer etc.), Combat (Mixed Martial Arts, Pokémon, Beyblade, Judo, Boxing etc.), E-sports. **(A/N: I have the whole system worked out. But since it will be too long and tedious to explain, I'll skip it here. If you want I can write it separately, so let me know.)**

"Well captain," She looked up to me smiling and said, "Our chances are just as good as any other team."

"Heh, well said." I said smiling back. We looked back at our team members, who were right now smiling and playing Antakshari. **(A/N: It's a popular Indian game. One team starts singing a song after which, the other team has to sing another song that starts with the syllable with which the last song ended. The team which is unable to sing a song for its turn after 10 seconds, loses.)**

"Hard to believe that fifteen minutes ago this bus was as quiet as a graveyard." I said.

"Heh heh, yeah." Shelly said chuckling. Then she added, "Hey, you worried?"

"Of course I am." I said.

"You're a terrible liar, just like my brother." She shook her head smiling and reached up to ruffle my hair.

"Believe me, I'm not lying." I said shaking myself free of her grasp.

"Get ready kids, five more minutes." Our driver shouted to be heard over the ruckus in the back.

"Thank you Mr. Burton." We shouted back at him. I could see him smiling in the rearview mirror.

The plump, thick mustached man has been a bus driver for our school for as long as I can remember. Kindergarteners, middle schoolers, and high schoolers everybody loved him alike.

"I still can't believe you kids are competing in the District Tournament. Still feels like yesterday when you guys were crying when Ms. Bean caught you playing cards (duel masters/monsters, I can't remember which) during class and threatened to call your parents." he said to Shelly reminiscing.

"Yeah…. I remember that." Shelly said chuckling.

"Alright kids, we're here." He said as we approached the Battle Block. Once inside the gates, he headed straight for the parking lot.

Since I was already standing and our bags were in the driver's compartment at the front, I was the first one to get off the bus. As I was taking the first step down, I took in the view.

* * *

The venue of the Jarion district tournament is shaped like a spider's web. The paths form the strings of the web and the spaces in between are occupied by the buildings. The buildings form rings and there are three such layers.

The outermost layer consists of shops selling memorabilia and stuff, the second ring has the living quarters for the participants for the duration of the tournament. The third and the innermost ring is occupied by medical facilities for both humans and Pokémon. At the center lies the actual Battle Block. A massive stadium with a capacity of about twenty thousand in addition to four jumbo screens, it is one of the biggest stadiums for any sport in our country. The battle area itself, is of the same size as a football **(A/N: For all terms and purposes, in my stories, football will always mean soccer and not American football)** stadium. The referee stands on a platform outside the arena which has a screen showing him the HP and other stats of the competing Pokémon.

"Feels so cool to be here as a participant instead of a spectator." Gary said as he stepped down after Shelly.

"Talk about yourself, man. I think I'm about to hurl." Said the brown haired, blue eyed boy who stepped down after him. His name was Ryser, the vice-captain of the senior team.

"Really? I never would have guessed. To me you always look like you are about to barf." Rafiq said stepping down after him.

"Now, I'm guessing it's my turn to speak as I'm the next one getting off the bus." That was Kail, another member of Shelly's team. She was one year our senior (the same age as her brother) and a Pokémon battle prodigy. Alice and I had beaten her just once each, the day before. Gary, Jane, Sarah and Tyler have never faced her.

"Me next." Alice said as she got down.

"Let's not make this a thing." Jacob, Shelly's younger brother, who was next in line, said. And just as he said it, he realized that he had followed the order. His expression at the realization, caused us to chuckle.

The registration desk for the participants and the check in desks for the spectators were situated just outside the stadium entrance and exit (radially opposite) respectively. The registration desk was a group of four tables, each of which had a single tournament official. Upon registration, they were giving the participants, their tournament passes.

(The following paragraph is for those who are reading this in the past. For those of you who are in the future, that's how it used to be.)

* * *

The tournament passes are electronic wrist bands made of a material which is a mixture of aluminium and thermosetting plastic. They are programmed to adjust their temperature based on the wearer's skin temperature and pulse which allows it to pick the most comfortable temperature for the user. Each bracelet has a touch screen which can be used to check one's current location along with the locations of other passes linked to it, anywhere on the campus via a real time tracking system. (Oh and it also shows the date and time) Another feature allows a user to send a link request to another user which, if accepted, would provide each user with the other's body condition (in case of emergencies), tournament standings, etc. along with the ability to exchange voice and text messages as well as voice and video chat. Teammates' passes are already linked. (All participants are sent mail, both hard and electronic, explaining the use of the passes)

"Your names and id's please." The woman at the registration desk said to the four of us. The seniors had registered right before us.

"Arthur Sance." "Jane Jaimes." "Gary Parr." "Alice Tanen." We said as we handed her our ids for verification.

"There you go," she said handing the ids back, "Here are your passes. Oh and which one of you is the captain?"

"That's me." I said as we put on our tournament passes which switched on once they verified our identities via facial recognition.

"Ok….. Arthur Sance…. There. Done." Then she looked back up and said, "Your luggage has already been delivered to your rooms. Just follow the directions on your passes. The opening ceremony will start at 8 p.m. A reminder has already been set. Don't be late and good luck."

We murmured our thanks to her and left the queue to head towards our rooms in the outer zone of the campus.

"So it's official," Alice said as we entered the middle zone. "We are actually about to participate in the District Tournament. I'm getting butterflies."

"I know, me too," Gary said. Then he asked Jane and me, "What about you two?"

"I'm gonna hurl." Jane replied weakly, while I simply shrugged.

"Aren't you even a little nervous?" Gary asked.

"Well of course I am," I replied. "But more than that I'm excited. Think about it this way, we are finally about to take our first step towards the Alliance and see for ourselves whether we have what it takes or not."

* * *

"Dude, this room is awesome," Gary yelled from the bathroom. "Check out the size of this bathtub!"

"I swear to god I'm living with children….," I thought to myself as I was unpacking my luggage. "Wait, what?" (Because, you know… we _were_ children.)

"Dude," Gary said poking his head out of the bathroom after a few moments of silence, "Why aren't you answering?"

"Hey man I've got my own problems here." I said.

He looked at me for a few moments then opened his mouth to say something but stopped as the room's door opened and the girls entered with excitement plastered on their faces.

"Guys, Did you look at the bathrooms!?" Alice said excitedly.

"I know right!? I could swim laps in the tub." Gary said with just as much excitement.

"You don't look so excited, Art." Jane said popping her face in front of me as I was looking down while sorting my clothes in the suitcase.

I looked at her and asked, "About the bathrooms?" She nodded.

"Seriously…" I pushed her head aside and continued to unpack.

They continued their childish (again?) tirade until it was time to head towards the Dome for the ceremony. (Those idiots didn't even unpack.) We decided that we would eat after the ceremony since all the food and medical facilities were open 24x7.

* * *

The paths had not been so crowded when we arrived at about 6 p.m., as they were by the time we stepped out. It was then that I realized the sheer magnitude of the competition. (And it was just the district level) Every single person walking on the road was either working there or a participant. And a very small percentage of them was not wearing the tournament passes. A silence fell over us at the sight. I don't know what was going through my friends' minds but I was observing the competition.

I spotted last year's runner-up team, New Dawn Academy. Especially their captain, Cliff Mason because he was the only participant in the whole competition who did not lose even once. And that too without using all three of his Pokémon in any match and none of his Pokémon ever lost a match, meaning at the end of his matches he always had all three of his Pokémon available. His team might not be the best but he definitely was the best player in the tournament. Also since the team that beat New Dawn last year was no longer there (having moved on to the State level), his team was being regarded by both the social media and press as the main contender for this year.

The team I saw next, put me on my guard a little bit. Since no one was wearing their uniforms, I did not know which school they were from. There may have been more, but at the moment I only saw five (Maximum six members are allowed). Two of them were twins, a boy and a girl. Both were about 3 to 4 inches shorter than me with light brown hair and alert green eyes. The remaining three were boys, one of which was tall and heavily built, with muscles that made me feel like a twig (And I'm by no means a twig). The second one wearing a hoodie with the hood up so I couldn't see his face. He was just walking with the others with his hands in the pockets of the hoodie. However it was the third one was the one that interested me the most. He was about as tall as me, and was wearing glasses. His face was thin with black spiky hair. The reason he interested me was that I could not read him. The other four, although did a good job of protecting themselves against cold reading, they weren't impossible to read. However I blanked on their teammate. The guy was expressionless. He had no unique actions or movements like a distinct gait or any distinguishing features like his teammates. To add to it, his grey eyes were languid and did not rest on anyone for more than a few seconds. But a few seconds later, I did get something by chance, when he looked at me. I saw a slight widening of his eyes and for an instant their foggy hue sharpened into a steely glint. However, the next moment they reverted back to that faraway look. Now I at least had something although it wasn't enough. I knew why his eyes widened when he looked in our direction. He couldn't read any of us either. But the moment we entered the battle stadium, I forgot everything else.

* * *

Imagine a typical stadium, with seats surrounding the playing area, four jumbo screens, one on each side. A typical stage set up at one end with spotlights from above and below (all switched off at the moment), camera drones and security drones circling overhead. Now, imagine this set up filled with some 2000 odd spectators, the stadium resounding with their cheering. That is how it looked when I looked at the screens which were broadcasting feeds from the camera drones. The spectators were waving flags, banners, hands, their drinks, even their children. Many of them had their faces painted. About half of the people were supporters of the big wigs like Saint John, New Dawn and Casters' Academy etc. The rest were for the others. We went to one of the entrances

The Master of Ceremony appeared on the stage about fifteen minutes after everybody was present. He walked to the front from backstage, with lights embedded in the floor on both his sides, lighting up as he walked past them. He was tall and had short black hair with black eyes. He was wearing a half sleeved white hoodie with the tournament logo (Silhouettes of two trainers, a boy on the left and a girl on the right, holding up a poke ball each with their lasers colliding in the middle and the words, 'District' and 'Tournament' written above and below them respectively) in front, along with black cargo pants. His hood was up as he walked up to the front.

"Good evening everybody!" he said removing his hood and putting his hands up, the audience and contestants cheered. "How are we today?" again cheering.

"Wow," he said surprised, "No motivation needed here. Usually I have to ask again before they cheer." The audience replied again.

"Awesome! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Aryan Domingo and I will be your MC for tonight. So without further ado, let's—" he was interrupted by a woman's voice.

"Aryan, don't you dare start without me!" A woman came running from backstage and stood beside the man panting with her hands on her knees.

The man turned away from her and said, "Ah crap. I was hoping we lost you at the airport."

"Sorry, what did you say?" she said looking up at him.

"Nothing, uh, nothing." He said instantly. Then looking at us he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your other Master of Ceremony, my wife, Sabrina Domingo."

The woman stood up and waved her hands at us. She had dark brown hair, with matching eyes and a sharp featured face which was flushed at the moment.

"So," the man said after a few moments, "let's get this started shall we?"

"But first, let's start with the rules." His wife said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." The man scratched the back of his head.

"Wouldn't expect anything less of you, darling." the woman replied causing some to chuckle.

Both of them raised their right hand and snapped their fingers. The next instant, all the lights went out and a screen lit up in the background. An animation of the tournament logo was played followed by a video about the tournament; its rules and regulations, match format, etc. It was quite good actually. After that the lights came back on and the MC's walked back onstage.

"So," the woman said, "Now that we are clear on the rules, time to start the ceremony."

"To do that I would like to call upon the stage, some people who are well known and loved by the Pokémon community. First, the woman who, single handedly put this city on the radar of the Pokémon community. At the age of thirteen, she won her first National tournament, and her team remained the National champion for over 40 years. And yet she never competed in any higher level competitions despite having been invited multiple times by both F.I.T. and many of the top teams. Why? Because just like she transformed her city, she wanted to transform this country into a serious contender for the Continental and World championships. So with this in mind she became a coach for the new generation of trainers and Pokémon and gave many great trainers to the world. The most commonly known, are of course the Holy Trinity of our country, the former captains and the current managers of the Warhawks, S-Class and the Seven Crowns.

"I'm sure you all know by now that who it is that I'm talking about. So please welcome, Mrs. Elena Du Lac." With a wave of her hand, she turned towards backstage as fog accumulated on the stage.

Spotlights switched on, two at a time, to reveal the short and thin figure of Elena walking to the front stage beside the MC's. Upon reaching, she bowed to the audience amidst the roaring (and might I add, well deserved) applause. Her brown hair hung loose down to her waist. As usual she wasn't wearing any makeup; however, she was wearing her trademark spectacles.

"Hello everyone," she said to which the audience gave a deafening reply. "It is so nice to see such a huge turnout, both among the spectators and the contestants. Those of you who know me, know that I am a woman of few words, so all I will say is what I say to my students; battle hard, battle fair but most importantly, enjoy it so you don't leave any regrets. Good luck!"

After the thunderous clapping was over, the man spoke to Elena, "Thank you Mrs. Markson. Now if you would be so kind as to officially begin the opening ceremony."

She nodded to him, then turning towards the contestants she said, "Gladly."

The former National champion then threw two pokeballs into the air. A Blaziken and an Infernape emerged from them. Upon landing on the stage they immediately shot flame throwers towards the sky amidst the cheering audience. Fireworks were lit simultaneously, lighting the night sky up like a Christmas tree.

* * *

"Man, I am about to drop dead." Jane said as trudged back to our rooms after the ceremony.

"Yeah me too. The ceremony was ni—" Gary started before being interrupted by Me.

"Wait. Why are we going to the rooms? We were going to eat, right?"

"No, you guys go on, I'm going to bed." Jane said and resumed walking.

"Oh you're not going anywhere" Alice said grabbing her by the collar from behind.

"Why, mom?" Jane asked with as much annoyance in her voice as she could muster.

"Because it's just nine thirty and if you sleep now you'll be up before the birds and then you'll wake me." Jane's shoulders slumped slightly in defeat and we changed our course towards the food stalls.

"It's that bad, huh?" Gary asked.

"Don't ask." Alice replied.

* * *

Nothing much happened after that, except for one curious incident. While we were waiting for our food at the cafeteria, the team that I talked about earlier entered carrying a few hand bags (probably full of souvenirs), chatting away among themselves. They sat a few tables away from us, such that they had to pass by our table to get their food. Their food was ready in half an hour and the guy I mentioned earlier, the one I couldn't read, and the muscular one rose to collect it from the counter.

As they were returning with the plates, the smaller one tripped on the bigger one's foot, right next to us and almost dropped the food on me but managed to catch himself at the last second. After he regained his balance, he looked at me and said, "So sorry, Arthur. Did it fall on you?"

"Uh… No. No it didn't, it's alright." I replied. Then I continued, "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

"Oh I'm sorry. My name is Alexander, I'm from New Dawn." He replied with a smile.

"Nice to meet you."

"Same here. Sorry, but uh… I have to run now, or my team will eat me instead of the food." Then as he left he turned back again and said, "Again sorry." To which I waved back.

"Do you know that guy?" Gary broke the silence with a fierce whisper. "And did he just say New Dawn?"

"No and yes, respectively." I said sipping my hot chocolate.

"Then how does he know you?" Jane asked next.

"He probably researched us." Alice said. Then, turning to me she asked, "Right?"

"Hm," I responded, "I saw him earlier when we were going to the ceremony and we laid our eyes on each other for a few moments."

"And did you fall in love?" Gary asked.

"With my looks you would think that, right? But no."

"Don't tell me ….." Alice said. I responded by raising an eyebrow and sipping my beverage.

"What, he tried to read us?" Jane asked. I nodded.

"But then how did he research us so quickly?" Gary asked surprised.

"Did you not hear him say New Dawn?" I asked.

"And what do we know about them?" He asked.

"I didn't get much, especially from him. And I also couldn't find him in our school's database." I replied shrugging and leaning back.

"So basically if we go up against that team early on, which seems to be the favourable outcome, (Since both the teams were new and unranked and they were higher on the seed ranking than us because of their school, they were probably going to be seeded against us in the either of the first two rounds) we're screwed." Alice said looking at the three of us.

"Basically." Gary replied.

"Only…" I began while tapping my next order token on the table and they all looked at me curiously, "we're not."

"Why?" Jane asked. "We don't have anything on them, whereas they may very well know our strategies too. They have a clear edge on us."

"No, wait. He's right." Gary said before I could respond. "Actually, it's the other way round, if I'm not mistaken." He turned to look at me and I nodded.

"You mean to say that _we_ have the advantage and not them?" Alice asked Gary.

"Yeah." I said. "And I have two reasons to think that: first; when he looked at us before the ceremony, I saw his eyes widen and focus. And even though it was for just a few moments, I realized that he couldn't read us either."

"And the second one?" Alice and Jane asked together.

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to show some appreciation for my skills."

"Well as Captain, shouldn't the real reward for you, be to see your team win rather than the wasting time fishing for compliments?" Jane asked with a smirk.

"Touché." I said, "Ok, so the second thing is that just now, he made the mistake of showing off. Now we know that he knows about us."

"I don't know man," Alice said shaking her head, "it seems pretty thin."

"Or maybe he is so strong that he wanted to give us a fair chance by allowing us to figure it out." Said Gary.

"Oh no," I said smiling, "believe me…. He made a mistake."


	5. Chapter 5

**District Tournament – Day 2** **:**

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen," said Aryan Domingo, one of the two MCs for the tournament, "to the two hundred and twenty first Jaron District Tournament!"

A loud cheer emanated from the two thousand strong audience in the stands.

"This year we have a whopping one hundred and sixty teams participating." Said Sabrina Domingo, our other MC and the wife of the first one. "And for those of you who don't know, this number beats all the other districts' numbers in the state, this year." This caused the audience to cheer again.

"Man, shut up and start the matches." Gary said fiercely from behind me.

"Dude, shut. Up." Alice who was standing behind him said twice as fiercely.

All the teams were standing in front of the stage. Each team's members stood in a single file and each file was part of a row. There were ten teams in each row and there were sixteen such rows. We were standing in the third row. The senior team stood in the second row three teams to our right.

"Now," Sabrina continued, "let me explain the rules once again. First, the teams will compete in a knockout round containing three stages. Every day ten battles will take place. So the first stage will conclude in eight days, the second in four days and the third in two days making a total of fourteen days.

"The twenty winning teams will then be divided into four blocks, namely A, B, C and D. After one week of preparation, each team will battle every other team in its block twice. The first match will be a double battle and the second one will be single battle. For each match, winning will give you two points, a draw one and a loss, zero points. For this round there will be four matches every day, i.e. one from each block.

"The top two teams from each block will advance to the quarter finals which will start after four days of prep time. Of course from there it will be knockout rounds again."

"Thank you Sabrina." Said the husband.

"Ok, now that everybody's caught up, let's take a look at the seeding for the prelims." He waved his hand towards the big screen behind him as the match ups were displayed on it.

"Second round, huh?" I said as we sat in Gary's and my room. Jane was curled up on the sofa across the room while Alice was sitting on the floor with her back against the couch such that she was facing my roommate and me, who were sitting on the bed. Gary was sitting near the foot of the bed while I was sitting at the head with my back and head, resting against the wall.

"But we have to win the first round before that, as do they." Jane said.

"True, but at least we know our first opponent." Said Alice as she checked the database of our school on her C Pad. (Communication Pad)

"So what are we up against?" I asked lifting my head to look at her.

"Nothing serious as far as I can see, but you never know." She connected the pad to the TV.

"Let's see, then…." I said as we watched the video playing on the screen. It was a battle and the date stamp at the top right corner said 7/6/51016, which showed that the video was from last year's tournament. The Pokémon battling were, a Torkoal and an Umbreon.

"Torkoal's team is our opponent. And the trainer is the captain. His name is Toshiro Kojima. He is the captain of the East Wind Institute. And the other one is from Umbra." Alice said.

The Umbreon started with a quick attack which was dodged, promptly by its opponent. As soon as Torkoal landed, it unleashed a massive flamethrower which was barely dodged by Umbreon. However Torkoal didn't even give its opponent a chance to recover and unleashed another flamethrower. This time the flames enveloped the dark type Pokémon. It was clear at that point, that the match was over and sure enough, the referee's flag went up signalling Umbreon's defeat. The Umbreon was called back by its trainer. He then threw another pokeball, which opened up to reveal a Scizor. Our opponent too recalled his Torkoal and sent out his new Pokémon which was a Blaziken.

The match started once again and this time it was the fire Pokémon that initiated the attack. It started with a quick ember and without even waiting for its opponent to react, it leapt after it with a quick dash. The grass Pokémon stood no chance as it dodged the first attack but was left wide open for the follow up which sent it flying out of the arena, smashing into the boundary of the stadium. The next moment saw the referee's flag going up signalling the end of this round. Everyone was waiting eagerly for the next round to start. However, Umbra's contestant just stood there with his head hanging down for a few seconds, after which he just raised his right hand, which is the official signal for surrender, for all the tournaments handled by FIT. He then turned around and just left the stadium through the players' exit, his head hanging the whole time. He did not even listen to his teammates who were calling out to him and walked past them without even looking at them. Tojiro just shook his head and walked back to his five teammates who were waiting for him with raised hands for hi-fives.

The next two players took their places at the edge of the arena.

"Her name is Soling Trace. She is the vice-captain." Alice told us.

The girl from Umbra said something to E.W.I.'s vice-captain who replied by shrugging and saying something with a smirk. It must not have been the reply her opponent was looking for, because she just took a pokeball from her belt, enlarged it and held it at her side and gripped it hard. We could clearly see the whitening of her nails. Soling, on the other hand, calmly took her pokeball and lobbed it towards the arena. It was a Swampert. Her opponent, surprisingly, mirrored her action releasing a Fearow. As soon as the referee's flag dropped, the Fearow unleashed a strong swift attack. Dozens of glowing five-pointed stars were hurled at the grounded Pokemon who, in response, unleashed a torrent of water from its mouth which looked like a Hydro pump. The water stream wasn't dispersed even a little bit and it cut through the stars hitting its mark and pushing it away. Only its wings were poking out from sides whereas the rest of the bird Pokémon was covered by the water.

Once the water stopped, Fearow just fell down and didn't move. The stadium fell silent and the medics along with Fearow's trainer rushed towards the Pokémon while Swampert and its trainer just turned around and walked back to their team.

There were no further rounds as the opposite team surrendered immediately and just like that, the match was over.

"Do you have any more?" Gary asked after a couple of minutes of contemplative silence.

"Nope. Principal Lazarin said that this is the only one for this team." Alice replied disconnecting the pad from the TV.

"Oh Lazarin said that, did he?" Jane said with a sarcastic smile and the others followed suit.

The man in question, Principal Cran Lazarin, came out of nowhere, three years ago and replaced our then current principal, Gary Clay, in the middle of the semester. Naturally the parents had a bone to pick with the management, which, anticipating the dissent among the parents, invited them to a conference in the school auditorium, with the new principal. The students were invited too.

Once everybody had settled down, Lazarin walked onto the stage. He was a tall man, with grey hair which looked unnatural when coupled with his young face. He couldn't have been more than thirty five. (He was thirty two at the time, as I found out later.) He wore wire rimmed glasses and his eyebrows appeared to be slightly raised. When coupled with the slight smile that he wore on his slightly thin face and sharp featured face, they made him look perpetually curious. He walked with a cane, however there was no sign of a limp in his gait. However, it was neither the unnecessary cane nor the unnaturally grey hair that first drew my attention. It was his eyes….. They were bright red, almost glowing, just like a Sharingan but without the pattern. They belonged to a completely different man. A man who was just as shrewd and cunning as he was ruthless.

The four of us were sitting somewhere near the middle of the third row. As his eyes scanned the crowd, they met mine for a few seconds. His smile widened ever so slightly….. Probably in response to the one that appeared on my face.

Then…... he spoke.

"Dear parents, I understand your frustration." even his voice seemed to have a smile of its own, "I know that you are…..sceptical, to say the least. I also know that no amount of assurance from my side will ease your fears. I would feel the same way if I was in your place. So I won't try to convince you. All I am going to do, is ask for time… Give me until the summer vacations. I promise you that you won't you be disappointed. However, if you feel that your expectations have not been met….. I will resign on the spot and personally reimburse your fees that you will have spent by then."

He scanned his audience once again, his smile never leaving his face. He then continued, "Now. As part of the goal that I just mentioned, I will be having one-on-one talks with each and every student of this school."

His smile widened as a murmur of surprise travelled through the audience.

"I want to gauge every student's strengths and weaknesses. That way I'll know where they need improvement and where they need grooming. Of course, the studies will continue as per the schedule. I'll be talking with them after the half yearlies are over i.e. during the 4 days of post exam break."

A loud groan emanated from the student part of the crowd, to which he raised both hands (his cane in one of them) and motioned them to quiet down saying, "Alright, alright. Settle down."

The groan grew louder.

"Parents… a little help, please?" A few parents chuckled at the scene and then all the parents told their children to quiet down. The noise was gone in a few seconds.

"As I was saying," our new principal said after a few quiet moments. "I will take the post exam break. But, in return, you will get the first four days of the new session as self-study days. That means that you can do anything you want for the whole day…. except leaving, of course. Thank you and that is all from my side." Before anyone could fully process his words, he left the auditorium.

"Arthur Sance…" He said as I entered his office, without looking up from his table. He was going through a file with a pen in hand.

"Good afternoon, sir." I said, closing the door behind my back.

"Please have a seat." He motioned to the three seats in front of his table.

As I walked towards them, I looked around the room (calling it a hall would be more appropriate) to get an inkling of the man…. I was stumped. (To be fair, I was in sixth grade at the time.) There was not any shortage of data, mind you. On the contrary, there was quite an abundance of it. On the wall to my left, hung a painting of a ship sailing through a storm beside another painting of the back of a man standing on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the throngs of people standing below, all looking up at him. And on the right wall hung a warrior, clad in white plate armour, who's two handed sword was half way through a yellow-eyed, shadow-like demon. **(A/N: Obviously,** _ **I**_ **know why Arthur was stumped. The question is…. Do you?)**

He closed the file as I sat down and looked at me with that permanent half smile of his for a few seconds, before saying, "Tell me….. What do your observations say about me?"

As one might expect, I was taken aback by the question. However, the next moment I replied, "Uh… Nothing conclusive sir. The…..uh…data are contradicting each other."

"However….?" He said, encouraging me to go on by nodding slowly.

"However, I do know that since you anticipated and noticed a hot read from a sixth grader, you yourself must be quite accomplished at it."

He waited for me to continue. However, after a few silent seconds, he shook his head, smiling and let out a little sigh. Then he said, "Look, I'll tell you two things and I must warn you that they will sound deceptively simple. However, they will be immensely helpful to you in the future if you remember them. The first one is; know when to show your hand and when to hold back."

"And this must be one of those situations where I should show my hand."

"Exactly."

"I also know that you are a mage and a swordsman whose primary element is electricity." I then looked at him and shrugged saying, "That's it."

"Hmm… your inferences are pretty accurate. Now tell me how you got them."

"I —" I began to say but stopped as I struggled to remember my thought process.

After a few moments of my silent struggle he said, "You can't remember, can you?"

"No…." As I realized that he was right.

"Allow me….. First, I am a swordsman; you got that when you saw my cane. It is a bit too long to be of a comfortable length for a walking stick. Also I don't walk with a limp, but that's not conclusive. Second, magic; my eyes were too bright which usually happens when you pour mana into your eyes. Finally, electricity; my hair is of an unnatural shade of grey which is common in electricity users, especially those who use it to enhance their physical abilities."

"And the second thing?" I asked.

"There is always another way. And if ever you can't find it then assume that you missed something." He replied.

"Erm…. What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what you think." He then asked in an understanding tone, "The number of possible applications is too high, right?"

When I nodded he explained, "You forget that I told you that these will apply for the rest of your life. So of course the possibilities are going to be endless. Now, do you have any questions? Feel free to ask anything you like."

"Were you a part of the Alliance?" I asked.

He smirked and said, "Who said I _was_ in the Alliance?"

"Hm." I furrowed my eyebrows in thought. "So, hestill _is_ in the Alliance…. So why is such a powerful (it was pretty obvious) and probably high ranking member, doing running a school? ... I'm willing to bet that it's an undercover mission."

He smiled once again as he looked at me thinking. I'm pretty sure he knew what I was thinking because he changed the subject by saying, "I hear that you and your friends want to join the Alliance. Is it true?"

When I nodded my head, he asked, "So how do you plan on achieving that?"

"Well I've heard that you simply can't pass the physical exam for recruitment unless you've had the appropriate training. Also, it doesn't have that much weightage during the final selection because you're not expected to pass it. So, the only way is to hone your intellect. More specifically, combat strategies."

"Couldn't have put it better myself." He said clapping softly. "And I understand that your friends are in this too?"

I nodded.

"Good. So here's what's gonna happen. For any of your Alliance specific activities like Pokemon tournaments, _I_ will decide how much help or resources you need. You will contact me, directly, for any such help. If I see that you are serious about this, then I will arrange for your physical training as well. Any questions?"

"Yes sir. Is this part of your mission?" I asked, forming a small smile of my own.

"Oh no." He chuckled. "It's a long term mission and since I always wanted to teach, this became my cover story. And don't worry about Principal Clay, he was going to retire at the end of this year anyway. And once I assured him of my plans, he agreed to vacate the position early."

"Your mission is my dad's project, isn't it?" (Otherwise he wouldn't have told me that he was from the Alliance and on a mission.)

"Good." He nodded. "Anything else?"

"No sir."

"Well, it was nice talking to you, Arthur." He said extending his hand which I grasped. Then as I got up, he added, "I hope the rest of your team is as interesting. Oh and tell Jane to meet me next."

"Yes, sir." I said as I turned around and left the office.

So, that is how our current lack of information came to be. Our Principal had deemed that we had enough data to beat our opponent.

"You know I thought that we would be getting more resources and not less when he proposed the deal." I shook my head.

"Well look on the bright side. We now know that everything we need to win, is there in that video. You know it's good for us in the long run." Alice said.

"Ah… but that doesn't mean I can't bitch about it." I replied rubbing my eyes as sleep started to creep into them.

"Well that's true." She said. Then asked, "Does anybody need another look?"

"Nah I'm good." I said.

"Yeah, me too." Jane said.

"Nope." Gary said.

"Right, then I'm going to–" a yawn interrupted her, "bed."

"Yeah, me too." Jane said as they both got up to leave. We wished each other good night and Gary and I soon fell asleep.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!" Sang our ever energetic MCs, the Domingo couple amidst the roaring audience. The stage had been removed and the MC couple now stood on a levitating platform which hovered just above the ground, in front of the teams.

"Hope you had a good night's sleep?" Sabrina asked the audience. You can probably guess the response.

"I hope the contestants did too." Her husband said looking at the contestants as we stood in the same arrangement as the previous day.

"So are you ready for the first match of the 243rd Jarion district tournament?" She asked the spectators getting another cheer in response. As she said that, the platform moved away from the ground and stopped about 50 feet above it.

"Nice." Said the husband. "Alright, so for the first match, we have the junior team from the East Wind Institute hailing from the town of Jade. Now, when I say junior, I mean that this is their second tournament. And their opponent is the junior team of Elements Academy from Jarion itself. This is their first tournament, so let's give them a warm welcome." The giant screens displayed the two teams from various angles as the audience cheered once again.

"Now, I would ask the other teams to kindly exit the arena." Sabrina said.

The tournament officials directed the others towards the nearest exits. As the senior team walked past us we exchanged thumbs ups. Soon, only two teams were left in the arena.

It was now that I got a good look at our first opponents. There were four of them; two boys and two girls. First I looked at the Vice-Captain, Soling Trace who was standing behind her captain. She was wearing glasses, which weren't there in the video. Her brown hair was tied neatly into a ponytail behind her. She had blue eyes and a small nose and mouth on a slightly round face. She was about as tall as Alice. She wore sneakers which were well worn and had clearly been repaired many times. She stood straight in the standard at-ease pose and only looked forward aside from the brief once over she gave us.

Next, I moved on to the blond haired boy standing in the third position, behind her. I did not see him in the video which meant that he was new. He too had a round face and a small mouth and nose. His hair was neatly cropped and his blue eyes shone with an excitement that made him wiggle his toes, shift his weight from one leg to another and adjust his hands behinds his back, constantly. A little taller than Jane, he looked around him with awe plastered on his face. Although his pose was a copy of that of his vice-captain, he failed to mimic her discipline.

Next up was the other girl standing last. Shortest member of the team, she had brown hair hanging loose down to her waist and light brown eyes on a freckled face. As she looked at us gave us a bright, cheerful smile. She kept her hands at her sides and I saw a slight discolouration on the fingertips and a couple of small blisters on and slightly below the joint of the thumb.

Lastly, I looked at the captain who stood in the front. About two inches shorter than me, he had black spiky hair, dark brown eyes and a mouth which had a constant mocking smile plastered on it. He was wearing fingerless gloves but other than that his uniform was impeccable.

(If I forgot to mention earlier, all the schools in the country have a uniform.)

"Participants, please move to your respective sides." Aryan said.

Once we emptied the battle area in the middle, a podium arose near one of the longer edges of the rectangular stadium. On it, stood a referee with two flags, one white one red, placed on the panel in front of him.

"Today's referee is Mr. Samuel Colt. In his 12 year long experience, so far, he has judged well over 1500 official matches for the F.I.T. at every level including the '09 World Championship final between Europe and Africa. So, I think it's safe to say that today's match is in good hands. Wouldn't you agree, Aryan?"

"You say like I have a choice." A chuckle emanated from the audience. Even we manage to smile a little.

"Well you never did, but the illusion of it is nice, right? Anyway, over to you Mr. Colt."

"Alright," the referee said after a nod to the anchors, "Captains, please move to the centre for the toss."

Toshiro and I walked to the centre and stood facing the podium, with the centre line between us. The referee then took a coin from his pocket and held it between his thumb and the index finger such that the audience could see it on the screens. It was a well-polished silver coin with the letters H and T embossed on it. After holding it up for a few seconds, he tossed it to my side of the arena signifying that I would be the one to flip the coin and Toshiro would choose. Without a word I picked it up and we turned towards one another.

"Ready?" I asked. He nodded in response. He chose heads and won which meant that we had to pick our players first. I returned the coin back to the referee whose podium started rising higher. Then Toshiro and I shook hands with the referee and with each other and walked back to our teams.

"So….." I said as soon as I reached my team, "Data. We only have 5 minutes."

"Well it's obvious that the blond guy is related to the vice-captain. A sibling, maybe? And he's mimicking her…. Or at least trying to." Alice said.

"Yeah and it seems that someone in her family is from a military background." Gary added.

"They're related but they're not siblings. He hasn't mastered the discipline like her suggesting that he hasn't been doing it for that long. Also, she's superstitious. Notice how the rest of her uniform is neat and tidy except for the shoes which have been repaired multiple times." I said.

"Why is it important?" Jane asked.

"Because now we can count on her using the same "lucky" strategy, if not the same Pokémon, as last year." I replied.

"I see." She said nodding. Then she added, "Well the other girl looks dangerous. A team that mercilessly beats their opponent senseless wouldn't recruit a soft hearted girl."

"Correct. Also she will mostly use poison types, but be ready for an ace in the hole. Probably a fire and poison type." I said.

"How d—" she began.

"Later." I said interrupting her.

"Ok, next is the captain. We already know that he is a power player who relies on strength and speed for heavy attacks." Gary said.

"Yes, but he is clever, adaptable and in sync with his Pokémon." I said.

"So basically, unbeatable?" Alice asked with raised eyebrows.

"Uh…. No. Not exactly. He _is_ all that, but he is not calm." I answered. And before anyone could ask, I said, "He loses himself in the arena. And his battle strategy is an evidence of his mental state. High damage dealing blows aimed at crushing the opponent's spirit rather than simply winning; he enjoys it. We saw it in the video, remember?"

"What a bunch of sadists." Jane said, echoing our thoughts, in a disgusted voice.

"So what's the plan, Captain?" Gary asked, a smile we knew well, forming on his face.

"They enjoy crushing victories?" I said looking behind me, at our opponent's side as I broke into a smile myself, "Let's be good underclassmen and learn from their example.

"Oh and let's not forget one thing…" I said turning back to my team.

"There's always room for improvement." Alice said finishing for me.

"Ok, time up. Elements team, choose your first player." The referee said.

Alice stepped forward and took her place in the rectangular space extending from our side of the arena. Once she was in place, poison girl stepped forward.

"Alright! The first pair of competitors has been decided. Carrie Gilt of E.W.I. versus Alice Tanen of Elements Academy." Sabrina said and the screens showed the photos of the two side by side as three grey squares dropped down from each of them like a menu. (Title screen)

"Time for this year's battle arena." Aryan said and snapped his fingers. As soon as he did that, the ground beneath our feet began to vibrate and the area inside the boundary of the arena split along the centre line and parted to give way to a new arena. It had knee high grass all over except for a stone path running in the middle which was wide enough for a Rhydon. In the middle of the arena was a pond, probably deep enough for a Gyarados. The stone path split into two and circled the pond with its outer side touching the boundary of the arena.

"Hi. It's so nice to meet you." I heard Carrie say to Alice with a voice whose cheerfulness matched that of her smile. "I really hope we enjoy ourselves."

"It's good to meet you too. And I hope so too." Alice replied just as cheerily.

"Okay, Alice." The judge held up the coin once again, "It's your turn choose. Ready?"

Alice nodded and he tossed the coin. Alice called heads and lost, which meant that she had to choose her Pokémon first. She threw her first pokeball which opened to reveal Shiftry.

"Cacturne, your turn." Carrie said throwing her pokeball which opened to let the cactus Pokémon, out.

As both of them chose their Pokémon, their photos reappeared on the screens and the topmost squares for each showed their Pokémon and the names given by their trainers.

"Begin!" The referee announced.

"Cacturne, use pin missile." Came the command almost simultaneously, which the Pokemon obeyed and raising its arms in front of it, it shot glowing needles at the other fighter.

"Hurricane." Alice said quietly. Shiftry swung its fans and a high speed wind erupted in the stadium. The needles lost their momentum and were scattered by the wind.

"Razor leaf." Alice said and a barrage of leaves was shot at the cactus Pokémon.

"Use pin missile." Was her opponent's reply.

The two attacks collided and the leaves tore through the needles and hit Cacturne head on. The Pokemon went flying past its stunned trainer and hit the wall behind her, hard.

Immediately, the referee raised the red flag and announced, "The match is over. Shiftry wins." The audience erupted into a loud cheer as the photos of the trainers appeared once again and the photo of Cacturne turned black and white.

"Whoa!" came the voice of Aryan amidst the cheering, "A complete knockout! Shiftry wins the match without even moving an inch."

The other team had all gotten up from their seats and they all had shock and anger on their faces. But none of them even matched the anger on Carrie's face. Her face was now contorted into a nasty snarl. However after a brief moment she replaced it with her usual smile.

"Wow, you are really strong." She said to her opponent as she returned Cacturne to its pokeball.

"Oh thank you. It means a lot coming from a senior like yourself." Alice replied.

"Let's continue. Vileplume, go." The senior trainer threw her second pokeball.

As Vileplume appeared, the title screen reappeared and the square below Cacturne, now showed the photo of Vileplume.

"Use poison gas." Carrie initiated the attack.

A thick, dark purple smoke arose from Vileplume's head and drifted towards Shiftry. It was clearly a diversionary tactic. However, it would amount to nothing as she was to find out soon, because she wouldn't get the chance to follow up.

"Leaf tornado." Alice said and Shiftry swung its fans to create a twister of razor sharp leaves. It was the size of the pond in the middle and lifted dust and grass blades into the air. It condensed on Vileplume, simultaneously removing the poisonous fumes.

"Vileplume!" Carrie shouted to be heard over the noise, while holding her hair, "Counter with leaf storm." However nothing happened and once the tornado subsided after a few seconds, Vileplume was down and unconscious.

"Vileplume can't fight anymore. Shiftry wins." The referee raised his red flag.

This time she didn't even bother to hide the snarl.

As the audience erupted at the quick knockout, the screen once again showed the two trainers and their Pokémon and the photo of Vileplume turned colourless. Sabrina's voice was nearly drowned as she spoke, "Ok this is a first for me. Shiftry has defeated two Pokémon without leaving its spot! Shiftry and Alice seem to be in a league of their own. One can only guess what else they are capable of. Having said that, the match is not over yet. Carrie still has one Pokémon left. I'm curious to see how she plans to deal with this seemingly unbeatable Pokémon."

"Let's hope she has saved the best for last." Said Aryan.

"You know I'm really enjoying myself. Aren't you?" Alice said with a sweet chuckle.

"You won't for much longer." Her opponent snapped.

"Whoa," Alice said raising her hands defensively, "No need for hostility."

"Your turn." Carrie said tossing her final pokeball which released a Slugma.

The title screen now showed Slugma in the last square below Carrie.

Alice turned around and looked at me. I gave her an 'I told you so' expression and she turned back.

"Lava plume." Her opponent said. An inferno of scarlet flames spread outward from the lava slug, incinerating the grass and scorching the earth.

"Cut through with leaf blade twister. And into the lake" Shiftry leapt head-first towards the incoming attack. As expected, Shiftry's rapid spinning created an air funnel around it, extinguishing the flames in its immediate vicinity thereby allowing it to pass through unharmed. It then dived into the water.

"Clever. But futile." Carrie said as her Slugma moved forward and stood at the edge of the pond, no doubt, waiting for the other Pokémon to run out of air. "Unless, of course, your Shiftry has learnt to breathe underwater."

Alice simply smiled and said, "Leaf tornado." Nothing happened for a few seconds. But then, a whirlpool started to take shape, in the pond. In another few seconds it grew bigger and more intense until the water started rising up and finally turned into a tornado, towering over its opponent.

Carrie chuckled and said, "You really love using your sword as a shield, don't you? Slugma, use flamethrower. Evaporate their shield."

The fire Pokemon obliged and the attack hit the tornado head on. Steam started to rise from the risen water.

"Ever heard of shield bash?" Alice said with a grin and then added, "Now!"

The tornado suddenly leaned towards Slugma, immediately lost its momentum and all the water splashed onto the fire Pokémon, immediately deciding the battle.

The referee's red flag went up and he announced, "Slugma can't fight anymore. Shiftry wins. Alice wins the match."

The audience burst into a thundering roar at Alice's flawless victory, as medics arrived on the arena to look at all the Pokémon who battled. The title screen showed the colourless photo of Slugma and Carrie's half of it faded as the Alice's photo enlarged with the word 'Winner' appearing below it along with a firework animation.

"What an unexpected match!" Came the excited voice of Sabrina from the floating platform as the trainers walked towards the referee's platform to shake hands. "The newcomer Alice completely obliterates her opponent, Carrie with just one Pokémon!"

"Makes you wonder, doesn't it?" Added Aryan in a thoughtful voice. "What the other members of her team are capable of?"

After they shook hands with the referee. Alice offered her hand to Carrie and said something (I didn't know what, as I couldn't read lips.), who simply looked at it. The audience quieted down in anticipation. After a few moments, she sighed, smiling and took the offered hand and the audience resumed its cheering.

"Strange," Gary said, once Alice returned and high fived us, "I expected her to be a sore loser."

I looked at the opposite team's side to see their reaction. Carrie had resumed her seat at the right end, beside the blond guy. The vice-captain sat, expressionless, on the other side of him, her arms folded without even sparing a look for her teammate. The blond guy, once again tried to copy her stoic manner but kept darting worried looks mixed with sympathy, at her. The captain sat at the left end and although he too did not spare a look, I saw him handing Carrie a handkerchief without looking or getting up, even though she was not crying.

"At least, he knows his team." I thought as Carrie got up and left the arena hurriedly.

"Strange." Gary said as he stepped beside me. "I thought he'd be a brutal dictator."

"Like I said. There's always room for improvement." Toshiro sat with his eyes closed, his fingertips touching in front of his face and his elbows resting on his knees.

"Who do you think he'll send, next?" Gary asked.

"Had you asked me that five minutes earlier, I would have said, Toshiro himself." I shook my head as I added, "But now…. I haven't a clue."

"I see what you mean." Gary nodded. "Oh look at the time."

He turned around to where the girls were sitting and called, "Yo Jane." As she looked up, she saw the time and got up. She bumped wrists with Alice and walked towards the arena. As Gary and I shifted to make way for her, she fist bumped us with either arm.

"Alright everyone, it's time for the second round of this match." Aryan said. "Next two players, please step forward for the toss."

The audience cheered as Toshiro and Jane stepped forward. They shook hands with the referee and with each other. The coin toss was won by Toshiro and they took their places for the match.

"Begin!"

"Scyther, your turn." Jane said. Throwing her first Pokeball.

"Monferno, go." Toshiro said.

"Fire blast." He said as soon as the Pokémon materialised. Monferno shot a massive star shaped flame.

"Vacuum drill." Jane said. (It is a variation of vacuum wall in which the user spins head first towards the target and creates a wall of vacuum around it. It is a very famous and an extremely difficult move for any Pokémon.)

"Whoa!" Alice said, voicing our surprise, as Scyther carved a hole in the centre of the all-consuming inferno, dissipating the attack.

However, her opponent was ready. As soon as Scyther's upper body crossed the fire; Monferno, with no command from its trainer, lunged forward with a mach punch, ready to uppercut its opponent. However, the attack never hit. Instead, Monferno was thrown sideways as soon as it got close to Scyther.

"Wha–? How?" Gary muttered as the three of us looked at our friend with what, I'm sure, were dumbfounded expressions. Apparently, it wasn't just vacuum drill (which, by itself, had never been performed at a level below Continental), but it was a combination of it and air slash. That's why the mach punch never hit and why the fire blast was completely dissipated.

"Monferno, use combat acrobatics." (A combination of close combat and acrobatics. The result is a hand to hand fighting style.) Toshiro said as Monferno got up, albeit with some difficulty.

Monferno charged Scyther, closing the distance almost instantaneously, and unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks. However none of the attacks landed as Scyther dodged them all. This went on for a few seconds until…..

"Monferno, use flame wheel." Immediately, Monferno leapt back and rolled itself into a flaming wheel and dashed towards its opponent.

"Double team." Jane said and a circle of Scythers surrounded the fire Pokémon.

Monferno rolled through one of the Scythers which turned out to be an image. However, that did not deter it from turning around to attack again.

"Night Slash." Jane said and as soon as Monferno re-entered the circle, the real Scyther attacked it from its right side sending it flying to the other side of the arena. This time Monferno did not get up and the referee's flag went up.

"Monferno can't fight anymore. Scyther wins."

The audience cheered as Toshiro, silently recalled Monferno, who was sitting up now. Without uttering a word, he threw his next pokeball which opened to reveal Torkoal.

"Use smokescreen." He said.

Torkoal released smoke from its nostrils and shell, which formed a thick cloud around it. In a couple of seconds, Torkoal was completely hidden behind the smoke which now covered its half of the arena, including the pond.

"Hold." Jane said quietly.

For a few, tense seconds, nothing happened. The stadium went quiet. However, neither Jane, nor her opponent lost their cool. (Well I couldn't exactly see Toshiro because of the smoke. But I assumed that that was the case because nothing happened.) Then, after a few seconds the smoke started to move forward, towards Scyther. However, Scyther did not move and neither did Jane, even as the smoke enveloped the whole arena. And it was so thick that I couldn't even see the starting of the arena.

Toshiro then said, "Flame wheel."

"Brick break." Was Jane's reply.

I felt the ground vibrate a little as the attack was initiated. However, as I expected, it didn't hit Scyther. Instead, it was Torkoal who was hit. I knew because I felt the sudden impact.

"Tackle." Toshiro said.

"Dodge it." Jane said almost simultaneously, although it was unnecessary as Scyther would have dodged it anyway.

"Overheat." Toshiro said. Suddenly, the air was filled with intense heat as I saw a white glow emanate from the smoke. Torkoal was preparing.

"Giga vacuum." Jane said and Scyther flew up from out of the smoke to gain the required height.

"There goes our chance at anonymity during the early rounds." Gary said with a sigh which caused Alice and me to chuckle.

A brilliant beam of white hot lava shot out from the smoke towards the descending Scyther, who was covered with a purple aura with yellow waves flowing over it. As the attacks collided, Scyther tore through the beam and disappeared into the smoke once again. The next moment, the stadium shook due to the impact and the shockwave cleared the smoke which had already started to thin. This revealed Scyther standing over a collapsed Torkoal.

"Torkoal can't fight anymore. Scyther wins." The referee said immediately, raising his flag.

The crowd burst into another deafening cheer as four medics to examine Torkoal. Toshiro and Jane rushed too, closely followed by both the teams. (Carrie had returned sometime during the match.) Torkoal was unconscious but there were no outer signs of injury. From the tracks it looked like it had been pushed into the ground a few inches and then dragged a few metres back. The medics immediately began the examination, checking pupils, temperature, shell integrity, etc. They then scanned the body to check for internal injury. No one spoke for those few tense moments. Even the audience had stopped cheering and concerned murmurs floated from the stands.

After a few moments, the medics raised a thumbs up which was displayed on the screens and the stadium erupted into a roar, again.

"What a match this is!" Aryan said, the excitement in his voice clearly audible.

"I know, right?" His wife said. "Can you believe that this is just the first match of the tournament?"

"I can't. And to be honest, I didn't expect anything like this." Aryan's tone changed to contemplative.

"I agree." Sabrina said. "But let's not forget that the match is not over yet."

"Of course." He said as they both looked down at us where we had been having our own conversation.

"Who are you people!?" The blond guy asked after the medics had taken Torkoal away.

"We're in first year, just like you." Alice replied.

"You sure don't fight like it." Soling said narrowing her eyes slightly. Alice simply shrugged.

"We still have a match to finish, don't we?" Toshiro said smiling.

"Yeah," I replied pointing to the MCs' platform overhead, "They are saying the same thing."

He gave me a slight nod which I returned. Then he turned around to go back followed by his team and we followed suit. Once everybody was settled, the referee signalled and the match resumed.

"Druddigon, your turn." Toshiro selected his third Pokémon.

"Scyther, return." Jane recalled Scyther and threw another Pokeball. "Fraxure, go."

"Fraxure, use x-scissor." Fraxure initiated the attack and lunged at the other dragon type with its jaws wide open for the attack.

"Crunch." Toshiro said just in time and Druddigon met the incoming axe jaw which repelled the smaller Pokémon.

"Chip away." Toshiro said even before Fraxure landed on its feet after being repelled. Druddigon replied with by charging at the target to attack. (This attack attacks the openings of the target consistently. Since Fraxure was airborne, it was the perfect opening.)

"Dragon pulse." Jane said and Fraxure opened its mouth and attacked. I saw the air in its vicinity, pulsate and the shockwave hit its opponent point blank, throwing it back. Fraxure was thrown further back due to the recoil and landed harmlessly while the other Pokémon landed flat on its back and slid a few metres.

"Use toxic." Jane said without missing a beat. Fraxure followed her example and promptly shot wads of toxic juice from its mouth.

"Dodge it and use Superpower." Druddigon immediately got back on its feet and dashed towards its opponent without sparing even a look at the incoming attack which landed, the next second, at the spot where it had been standing. The only thing that seemed to be on its mind was Fraxure. It was apparent that its ego had been hurt by the last attack. It was mad at having been shown up by a Pokémon that barely reached its wings. It had become apparent to me that Toshiro had learnt more self-control since last year and was now using strategies rather than overwhelming force. However, he still seemed to be struggling with the urge to lose himself as it was reflected by his Pokémon's apparent tunnel vision. The attack looked more like the beginning of outrage rather than that of superpower (a much more controlled attack).

"Aerial ace and then payback." Jane said. Fraxure turned around and started running away from the incoming Pokémon even though the other one was gaining. It ran past Jane and towards the stadium wall. It then ran up the wall without slowing down and suddenly launched itself at the other Pokémon. As soon as both the Pokémon were a couple of feet apart in the air, Druddigon pulled back its claw which burst into a bright glow and jabbed with all its might. However, instead of blocking it Fraxure, used the incoming claw as a support to leap over its opponent's head and as soon as it was above the wings, it jabbed. This launched the larger Pokémon downwards, the effect of payback having doubled the power of the attack (Payback does double damage if the user moves after the target.) causing it to hit the ground, nose first, at the point where the boundary wall meets the ground. Whereas Fraxure landed on its feet, a few feet behind. While the most noticeable aspect of a Druddigon is its exceptionally hard head, the combined force of payback and its own speed was enough to knock it out.

"Druddigon cannot fight. Fraxure wins. And the winner of the match is Jane Jaimes." The referee raised his flag causing the crowd to go wild as Toshiro recalled Druddigon and the trainers walked towards the middle to exchange handshakes.

"Incredible! Jane just defeated her opponent without losing any of her Pokémon." Sabrina said.

"It becomes all the more impressive when her opponent is the strongest member of his team and one of the ten strongest contestants of this tournament." Her husband added. "These Elements Academy guys sure are strong."

"You can say _that_ again. I don't th— What's this?" She said looking down.

The E.W.I. team were all walking towards the contestants raising their right hands; the official sign of surrender. Surprised murmurs arose from the crowd as we joined them.

"Why?" Jane asked.

"Didn't you hear Aryan?" Carrie said with a sad smile which was mirrored by her teammates. "You just defeated the strongest player on our team."

"But–" Alice began but was cut off by Toshiro.

"Don't worry about it. We're already out of the tournament. And besides, we already gave it our best shot. No point in wasting time having a pointless third battle." Silence took over.

"And here we thought you guys were sadistic jerks." I said chuckling.

"Ah…" Toshiro broke into a smile. "Well you wouldn't be wrong. But we've changed since last year. We had some… issues. We had a new coach last year. She is the one who gets the credit. Anyway," He said extending his hand. "I really enjoyed it. Well played, captain."

"Thank you, captain." I took his hands. The rest of his team followed his example and extended their hands. The audience, the MCs and even the referee clapped as our teams shook hands.

"Hey, do one thing for me." Carrie said to Alice as they shook hands.

"What?"

"Win it." She said grinning. "No pressure….."

"Oh come on, I wanted to lose the next match." Alice said grinning back.

As the other team turned to leave, I said, "Hey, what do you guys say we have a real match? No camera, no audience. Just us."

They stopped and Toshiro looked back over his shoulder and said, "Winter break?"

"Winter break it is. But I must warn you we'll have two more members with us, then." I replied. He smiled and turned back to continue walking. We too turned around to leave.

"So, captain. Since you didn't battle….. Did you form any kind of strategy for your friend in the next round?" Alice asked as we walked entered the stadium. They all looked at me curiously.

I couldn't help but smile.

 **A/N: Dear God…. Eight thousand words…..**


End file.
